Abstract
In Finland, both public and private organizations are actively applying information and communication technology (ICT) in adult education. Providing ICT‐supported education, e‐learning, requires focus on the virtual setting, but also on physical and human factors. Studying the e‐learning phenomenon from a service perspective gives new insights into how to provide better learner satisfaction.
The article presents a qualitative two‐case study. The cases come from Finnish organizations: one case from a polytechnic and one case from a large company. The choice of cases gives an excellent opportunity to compare practices between public and private sector. The cases have been studied using participative case simulation, an action research method. This method enables gathering of rich data, since all key players from the real‐life case gather together to share knowledge on a case that was realized in the near past. The researchers get to know how the case was executed in its reality, and not an ideal version about how it should have been realized.
After analyzing these cases from a service process point of view, a framework of e‐learning as service provisioning is presented in this article. This framework emphasizes the fact that e‐learning is a mixture of physical and virtual servicing. The most important service element is the interaction between the learner and the tutor. The technology has not removed the importance of the human face; the role of a tutor is reshaping itself. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.